This is a remarkable book about the effect particular places can have on people. The places in question in this book are places where Celtic Christians over many centuries have found the membrane between the physical world, the emotional world and the spiritual world is particularly thin. In fact they are places where one can indeed move from the physical world into the spiritual world and back again. I remember when I went to Java (Indonesia) to live and teach as a young man I discovered a whole society in which people had a much stronger sense of spiritual reality and the inter-permeation of physical and spiritual reality. So many patterns of personal formation and education in our society train young minds to give their full attention to material reality and ignore spiritual reality even though family members and teachers may be religious people. This book is dedicated to helping people to learn to recognize that spiritual realms and realities are just a real as physical reality, and that people can learn how to watch, listen and perceive spiritual reality as clearly and authentically as material reality.

--Lawrence M. Yoder

Our Thursday morning book discussion group found a gem in this book. The author has a clear and engaging writing style. Each chapter includes a personal story from her travels to Iona, many fine examples of Celtic Christian prayers, descriptions of Christian practices from centuries ago, but with a view toward inviting and encouraging our modern spiritual practices too. Each chapter closes with a Bible passage/story and a few, well focused discussion questions. Great resource for a group looking for an invitation and guide for deeper, broader spiritual growth.

--D. Van Niel